The Forums, which have functioned in one way or another since 1996, have now been closed to new posting. However there is a wealth of accumulated wisdom that can be searched for and utilized, so we've archived the messages.
Join our new forum on Facebook, the Eat Right 4 Your Type Group.

I had the opportunity to review The GenoType Diet this weekend, and was very happy to see how much information on epigenetics and biometrics was included in this book. I think the six types identified in the book present a good balance between a rational and intuitive approach to this emerging science.

However, I was hoping that Dr. D'Adamo would have discussed in more detail how it was determined that a particular food was beneficial or harmful for certain types.

As a naturopath, I recognize the ability of foods to affect the expression of our genetic potential, however it is still not clear to me what, specifically, about an almond, makes it toxic for an "Explorer", while being beneficial to all other types, or why garbanzo beans are only good for "Hunters".

Yellow Doc, I am not much of a computer person, but if Lola happens along, or one of the other senior folks, they can list links here for Dr. D's research info, etc. Read his blogs, etc., on this site, and try looking in the genotypediet.com website. Dr. D is big on the science, so I know it's out there somewhere and someone more computer-savvy can dig it up for you or He Himself may happen by and post some links.His Blood Type Diet saved my life, so I trust him and am usually willing to experiment on myself with his nutritional ideas.Cheers!

OSuzannaA Before Picture , In the Process of Becoming an After Picture FOOD for THOUGHT, Super Beneficial 4 All Blood Types!

OSuzanna - I did take a look through the website and the blogs and found tons of info and studies supporting the GenoTypes themselves, but wasn't able to locate anything which specified how specific foods were tested.

I have heard many accounts similar to your own from other colleagues who have used the Blood Type Diet with their patients, so I know there is definitely something to it!

However, there were a couple things about the Blood Type Diet which didn't sit quite right with me. One was the claim that eating tomatoes is harmful to all blood types. Most of the research that I've seen suggest great health benefits for many of the constituents found in tomatoes, especially lycopene. Also, I haven't seen any research which suggests that populations with higher consumption of tomatoes have a higher prevalence of disease.

Also, as a Type A, I tried out a vegetarian diet for a time, and did quite poorly with it.

At any rate, I was very excited about the new book, and I think there are some major advances presented over the Blood Type Diet. However, again, when it comes to specific food choices, I became a little leery when I read, for example, that kidney beans and cashews are "toxic" to all six GenoTypes.

Call me a stickler, but I want to know what, specifically, about these foods make them beneficial or harmful for the different types. It's not my intent to be antagonistic, however I am not content to simply hand my patients lists of foods to eat and not eat, I want to understand this from a biochemical standpoint before I use this system professionally.

Hi, Yellow Doc! Glad you are openminded about this diet! But....Are you sure that kidney beans and cashews are toxic for all types? I'll double check, but could it be that they can be added back in for some types after an initial period?Also on the blood type diet, tomatoes were not considered harmful for all types....have to look it up to see which ones.....Also a type A may be a nonsecretor, in which case they would need animal protein, which could have been your situation, as you don;t state your secretor status...(which you may not have had tested yet)....also some secreting A's need a bit of animal protein too.....keep asking questions!

...the claim that eating tomatoes is harmful to all blood types. Most of the research that I've seen suggest great health benefits for many of the constituents found in tomatoes, especially lycopene. Also, I haven't seen any research which suggests that populations with higher consumption of tomatoes have a higher prevalence of disease.

I have never heard of a claim like this about tomatoes for all blood types. They are only to be avoided by those A's and B's who are secretors and are super-beneficial for AB non-secretors and neutral for everyone else. You can see their status here...

Here s a quote from Dr D'Adamo answering a similar question on the boards.......for me, it s a keeper!! enjoy! only this was way before GTD came along.....but his answer might in fact be similar, and GTD is his creation from years of treating his patients, observation, creating an enourmous data base, and years of genetic study, and comparing results through his SWAMI program, which is now being tweaked with the GT data.....

Quoted Text

I applaud your interest in BTD, I just think that perhaps you don't understand how involved it is and what the learning curve (and expenses) are.

I'll take a little time and help you get started. Let's go!

1. Read every scientific article on ABO blood groups published since 1900.

Not a joke. Before you start dabbling away, you better know what you are talking about. Pay special attention to studies which describe physiological and genetic relationships. This of implies that you must have the requisite training in immunology, hematology, biochemisty, genetics and pathophysiology.

Have access to an research grade electrophoresis device and understand capably the techniques of gel immunoelectrophoresis and immuno-diffusion. Possess a full range of cell growth adjuvants that allow in vitro lectins to behave as in biological conditions. Perform and understand various techniques of lymphocyte blastogenesis and mitogen studies. Undertand lectin specificities and competitive inhibition techniques involving blocking sugars.

Now, on top of eveything else, do this for a minimum of five years. Shorter than that and I'm probably not going to believe your results.

Now, you might think I an being facetious, but this is reality. If you want to drop foods on slides of your blood, that's fine. But there is 100% chance that any reaction you observe is simply the changes that blood undergoes once it is out of the body.

On the old board we had a bright girl, who was convinced that she could figure out her husband's needs better than the book. Oh, she dropped all sorts of stuff on his blood, and analysed it with a toy microscope and announced with great solemnity that he did not react to wheat, but reacted to spelt, etc., and how mad he was at me for complicating his life.

Of course, in reality, wheat lectin is not a powerful enough lectin with which to observe any agglutination; you need more sophisticated technology. She was just observing clots and whatever other artifacts that had developed.

let me know if you need for me to fish out more!! lol

oh and before I forget! tomatoes are a diamond food for us gatherers!!

''Just follow the book, don't look for magic fixes to get you off the hook. Do the work.'' Dr.D.'98DNA mt/Haplo H; Y-chrom/J2(M172);ESTJThe harder you are on yourself, the easier life will be on you!

Even under BTD, type As are not pure vegetarians. They are suppossed to eat certain fish & turkey. They are just closer to being vegetarians than the other types.The most frustrating is an O who insists on being a vegetarian!

Welcome aboard. We love to have professionals who want to use BTD/GTD to help their patients.

I understand your need to understand the specifics of the diet but I think you (and all the BTD converts) need to understand that this book is not a medical text. It is for anyone, BTDer or no, layman or medical professional to use as a guide for following this diet. It is easy for magazines to take one or even ten "nutritious" foods and explain in a two-page article what exact effect each has. But even those articles only pinpoint particular nutrients those foods contain that are beneficial. As someone else mentioned, lycopene may be beneficial but that's not the only thing tomatoes contain and those other things may not be beneficial for everyone; therefore, it is important to consider other sources of said nutrient.

Not to sound like a broken record because I've said this in a lot of posts but I've been told all my life that whole grains, like wheat, are best for me. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The only thing wheat does for me is make me uncomfortably bloated and irregular. And from all the commercials I see nowadays for products with active cultures added to help regularity, I suspect I'm not alone. I'm also starting to see the signs of gluten-intolerance and the effects it's had on my health.

This book is addressing hundreds of foods for six different genotypes. To go into the detail you're looking for would overwhelm the average reader (i.e., me) and turn them off of the diet immediately. I understand that you want the information to be explicit so you can confidently recommend it to your patients but for me, I think Dr. D's reputation and the success stories from BTD and already from GTD are good enough for now. Hopefully, though, some of the links other posters provided will help you.

These were the physiologic parameters of interest. Almost all clients (n=980+) have extensive serological typing, all biometrics, dermatoglyphics, bioimpedance and breath hydrogen readings. Ancestral DNA (mtDNA and Y chromosome) and SNPs are capable of being evaluated by the software, but most patients do not possess this information.

These are linked via relational databases to a 'tabulator' which creates the super-tables out of this data and other external published frequencies and associations. This is then fed into a variety of multivariate tools that generate the Eigenvalues which identify the GenoType characterizations.

A whole system is a living system is a learning system.â€™ -Stewart Brand

Well Dr. D'Adamo, if that doesn't get down to the nitty gritty of individualization, not sure what does!

Yellow Doc,

As I am sure you have read, a key feature of Explorers are their impaired detoxification processes. Reference pages 155 and 156 and your answer will be clear. Almonds can be a source of molds which interfere with Explorer detox. In addition, almonds are a high source of omega 6 EFAs. Improper ratios of omega 6 and 3 can inhibit an Explorers metabolism, as well as interfere with their immune system. You should note, almonds are not a "toxin" but are a food recommended to be avoided only for 3 to 6 months while adjusting oneself to the diet.

A key point to emphasize here is, like his approach to medicine, Dr. D'Adamo's approach to nutrition is not "one size fits all." I am sure you have seen this with your own patients.

As time progresses, Dr. D'Adamo will begin to create tables of data to explain reasons behind food categorizations. This however takes a great deal of time, as I am sure you can gather from his list of standards each food was versed against. In the mean time, a close look at the food groups, and a through understanding of each specific genotype will probably lead you to your answers.

Thank you all for the information and links, as well as the clarification on tomatoes!

Dr. D'Adamo, a special thanks to you for stepping in on this one. I think it would add a great deal of value when presenting this program to my clients to be able to say that I know you have made these recommendations based on over 200 nutrient parameters and over 100 physiologic parameters.

As a clinician, I am sure you can appreciate my curiosity beyond a layman's understanding. I will take a closer look at all of this, and add a link to your book on my blog!

However, there were a couple things about the Blood Type Diet which didn't sit quite right with me. One was the claim that eating tomatoes is harmful to all blood types. populations with higher consumption of tomatoes have a higher prevalence of disease.

Hi Yellow Doc,Most of the genotypes will be able to return to the use of tomatoes after the initial acclimitization period of 3-6 months. This is what the black dot means. As far as I can see, it is only Genotype 6 (nomad) which would do best to avoid tomatoes.I'm sure that in time we will have access to all the information about the reasons for these categories (just as we have had in the Blood Type diet), but I guess that Dr Dadamo wanted us to get on with it as quickly as possible rather than delaying publication and dissemination of this new research until all the details could be made available. Through our contact with him during the years of BTD many of us have developed a strong trust in his goodwill and knowledge, and are prepared to accept this delay with patience.However, as a professional I do understand that you must be sure before you set your clients on this path,so maybe the first step would be to use yourself as a guinea pig with your own genotype? Wishing you well...you may care to join the http://www.genotypediet.com board and share your experiences with others within your genotype? Jenny

Hi Yellow Doc, and welcome to the forum.I think that it is fantastic that you have come here and asked this very important question. As others have mentioned, many of us are also interested in the science/reasoning behind why a food is good for one type and bad for another. I think especially as some values have changed with the addition of studying the effect on 30,000 (I think that is roughly the number)genes rather than just the blood type gene. The BTD food values list is a great source of information for explaining why foods may be good for one blood type and bad for another, so we all patiently wait in eager anticipation of a similar list for GTD. And at the moment, whilst we are not qualified to interpret the data, it is great to know that so many factors were considered during the testing process (thanks for chiming in Dr. D)

If I were given a recommendation for a diet by my Naturopath I would want the reassurance that they had looked into the science behind it and not just recommended it on anecdotal evidence. My own ND recommended the BTD to me (pre GTD publication) although it had previously been recommended to me by a friend. I tried the diet for myself after reading ER4YT and guessing my blood type (now confirmed correct)based on how I knew I reacted to foods listed as avoids for type A's. I think ND's and MD's have an obligation to understand and believe in any diet they advocate, as most are more likely to take their advice how ever ill-informed it may be.

"a wise person makes their own decisions, an ignorant person follows the public opinion"(Chinese Proverb)

However, there were a couple things about the Blood Type Diet which didn't sit quite right with me . . . Also, as a Type A, I tried out a vegetarian diet for a time, and did quite poorly with it.

I'm a type A too. I never tried the vegetarian thing though. Eat salmon, turkey, tuna, chicken and other fish. I found eating as a non-secretor allows more protein from meat sources and I felt so much better.